Ripper!
by McBreadle
Summary: 1888, Victorian London. jack the ripper is at large! NOTE the women in this story have taken on slightly different role as women didn't work in the police force during the Victorian Era. scenes of mutilation from the start.


**Ripper**

It was 1888 and in London there is a heavy atmosphere, too many young women had been murdered and today was like no other since the killing spree had started.

As Eric walked into room, he felt sick. On the bed was another mutilated body but this time it was the worse he had seen yet. Jack the Ripper had struck again. Eric had to leave the run down dwelling to get some air.

"Are you okay Eric?"

Eric looked up to see a familiar red head stood over him. He nodded slightly, took a deep breath and stood up straight.

"There's a whole lot of red in there H."

Horatio took off his bowler hat looking very worried, "another prostitute?"

Eric nodded, "I'm afraid so. This is the fifth victim."

"Do we have a name?"

Eric shook his head, "you'll have to ask the landlord. He's stood over by the door."

Horatio wandered over to a gentleman stood by the door.

"Are you the landlord of this building?"

The man's clothes looked old and discoloured but looked almost smart for an urban working class gentleman.

"Yeah, I own this establishment," came a cockney accent.

Horatio's eyes narrowed, concentrating on this cockney man, "so what do people call you?"

"John McCarthy."

"Mr McCarthy, can you tell me who rents this room?"

"Mary Kelly, sir, she owed me some rent so I sent my associate down to collect the rent from her. When he knocked on the door he got no answer. He looked through the window and saw a lot of blood. He came back to me and came down here so see what he was talking about. I broke the door down and saw everything in there. It made me puke."

"Thank you for your co-operation. If I need anything else I know where to find you."

John shuffled about a bit, "erm sir, do you know when I will get my room back? I need to get it cleaned out for rent."

Horatio's eyes narrowed once again, "Mr McCarthy, a woman was murdered in there, you could at least have a little respect for the dead."

"Look sir, the woman was a prostitute and prostitutes don't mean owt to anyone around here. They're pests and are everywhere."

"But you don't mind taking her money off her for rent which she would have earned from the street."

John stayed quiet.

"I thought not," Horatio left the landlord stood in his thoughts.

As Horatio walked into the bloodied room, the body parts that were left of Mary Kelly were scattered all over the room but in an ordered fashion. The medical examiner was already there trying to figure out what was going on.

"Dr Wolfe, what do you have for me?"

Dr Ryan Wolfe was covered in Mary Kelly's blood.

"Well, the cause of death is like the other four, severance of the carotid artery. Again suggests a left handed person, just like the rest of them. But this one is more violent as you can see."

Ryan showed Horatio where the various body parts were in the room.

"On the bed is the torso, the throat cut almost to the bone. The face has been mutilated beyond recognition."

"So this may not be Mary Kelly?"

"That's your job to find out. But I'm sure I can sew her face back together to see if it can be identified. Anyway, the abdomen has been emptied with the organs and the cut off breasts being strategically and orderly placed around the remainder of the body. On the table the killer has laid the skin from the abdomen and the thighs. The arms have been mutilated as well. Nothing has been left untouched. The only thing that's missing is her heart."

Horatio looked around the room unable to take it all in. This was by far the worst murder scene he had been to since 'Jack the Ripper' had been at large. He walked out of the room to where Eric was standing.

"Eric, how are you feeling now?"

"A lot better now, I'm not used to seeing scenes like that, it's normally unheard of in this part of London."

"I know Eric, let's get back to the office and put our evidence together."

Horatio fiddled with the brim of his hat, "we've got a lot of work to do."

With that, Horatio put his hat back on his head and lead Eric out to the waiting horse and carriage.

In the morgue, Ryan had finished piecing the latest victim back together with the help of his assistant Alexx Woods.

"Ryan honey, I don't think you can do any more for her now. Poor baby came to a nasty end, didn't she?"

Alexx was from one of the few black high status families in London. She was well educated and had high expectations of herself. She lived in a racist society and was lucky enough to get a job with Dr Ryan Wolfe as she found it hard to get any kind of job due to the colour of her skin. Ryan saw past that when hired her, he saw an enthusiastic young woman, wanting to learn more. He had caused outrage by hiring Alexx, firstly because of the colour of her skin and secondly, because she was a woman and women should never see a dead person, according to society. Some often thought that Ryan had gone mad.

Ryan laid down his tools, "you're right, as usual Alexx. I just wished there was more I could do. All of these women I have had to put back together in the past few months, it's enough to send you mad."

Alexx could sense that Ryan was feeling demoralised and tried to cheer him up, "well, people have already said that you're mad for hiring me!"

Ryan smiled and chuckled slightly to himself, "that's very true."

Ryan washed his hands thoroughly whilst Alexx covered the body with a white sheet.

"Do fancy a cup of tea when we've finished here?" Ryan dried his hands.

"Sounds like a good idea. I think you'll need to change first, people will be thinking you're the Ripper going out like that."

Sure enough, Ryan was covered in blood and needed to change, badly, "give me ten minutes. I'll meet you in my office."

Alexx left for Ryan's office as Ryan went to change.

Back at Horatio's office, Eric was looking through Dr Wolfe's reports and looking at the photograph's with the reports. Horatio looked at the list of suspects.

"How are we going to find out who did this when we have so many suspects?" Eric was fed up.

"We're going to have to set him up and catch him in the act, there's no other way."

Eric perked up, "I like the sound of that, what do you have in mind?"

Suddenly, there was a knock on the door. Eric stood up and opened the door. A young blonde elegant woman stood at the doorway with a brunette, slightly tanned younger woman.

"Oh hello Eric, is my husband about?"

"Good afternoon ma'am, he's sat at his desk."

Both women entered the room as Horatio quickly stood up and closed the files that they were looking through.

"Calleigh sweetheart, what are you doing here? I thought you were going out this afternoon."

Horatio put his arm round Calleigh's waist, kissed her and gestured towards the seat that he had just vacated.

"Well I thought that if you weren't busy, would you and Eric like to join myself and Natalia for some tea?"

Eric pulled his chair out for the other lady to sit down, "I take it you're Natalia."

Calleigh blushed slightly with embarrassment, "sorry Eric, this is Natalia Boa Vista. She lives next door to us."

Natalia sat in the chair, "I've heard a lot about you Eric, Horatio has spoken about you a lot."

Eric looked at a slightly embarrassed Horatio, "all good I hope?"

Natalia smiled, "of course."

Horatio cleared his throat and turned to Calleigh, "anyway, I'm afraid that were very busy at the moment with this Ripper case. We had another victim today, it's not looking good. The sheriff will be on my back soon trying to get me to arrest someone for these murders."

There was another knock on the door and it opened, it was Ryan and Alexx.

"Sorry, I didn't realized you had company," Ryan was very apologetic.

Horatio rolled his eyes, "come in, the more the merrier," the sarcasm in his voice didn't go unnoticed by Eric, he just grinned to himself.

"I have Miss Kelly's autopsy report, just got to wait for the autopsy photographs to be processed," Ryan handed a piece of paper to Horatio, "hey Calleigh, how are you today?"

"I'm fine Ryan, just trying to get these two workaholics to take a break but they won't."

Ryan laughed, "good luck with that one, I've been trying for years but I've learnt to leave them both to it."

There was another knock on the door, Horatio opened it to see PC Jake Berkeley stood there, "yes Berkeley?"

"There is a gentleman here I think you should see."

"Okay, give me five minutes and send him in."

Berkeley left and Horatio turned to the gathering in his office, "ladies and gents, I'm afraid we have work to do so if you wouldn't mind…"

"Horatio honey, does that mean you're kicking us out on to the street?" Alexx loved to tease Horatio who in turn nodded.

Ryan turned to Calleigh, "do you two ladies want join Alexx and myself for tea? There is a great tea room just up the road."

The two ladies looked at each other, "sure, we'd love to," Calleigh stood up and walked towards Horatio, "and I will see you later."

Horatio smiled, "you most certainly will."

Eric smiled at Natalia, "nice to meet you, Natalia."

"Likewise," Natalia stood up and followed Calleigh towards the door.

Ryan turned to Eric, "I must be the luckiest guy in London, three lovely women to take out."

Alexx looked at Ryan very sternly, "mhmm you'd better behave yourself as well, you may be my boss but I'm old enough to be your mother so behave yourself."

Eric laughed, "ha you've been told."

With that everyone left, except Horatio and Eric.

"Peace at last," Horatio breathed a sigh of relief just as there was another knock on the door.

"You spoke too soon H," Eric chuckled.

Horatio groaned slightly. What he wouldn't give to be at home, sat on his couch in front of his open fire with his wife sat next to him.

"Come in," Horatio called out, he couldn't be bothered to get up out of his chair again.

Berkeley entered with a gentleman stood close behind him.

"Is this the gentleman who wanted to see me?"

"It is, if you don't mind, I need to get back to my post."

Horatio nodded and Berkeley left the room.

"So what can we do for you sir?" Horatio gestured towards Eric's chair for him to sit down and Eric sat against the desk.

The gentleman was very nervous, "well, I heard that you found Mary Kelly's body today."

Horatio nodded, "that is correct."

"It can't be Mary, she's not dead."

"Well it was Mary's room that we found the body in."

"It wasn't Mary, I'm telling you now. You see, sir, I'm one of Mary's regulars and I only saw her this morning, walking in the park with another one of her prostitute friends," the gentleman was sweating and nervous by this point.

"You're telling me that the body we have in the morgue isn't that of Mary Kelly?" Eric was surprised.

The gentleman nodded, "yes sir. Look this won't come out in the papers will it? It's just that I'm married and a well respected businessman, me admitting to having a prostitute on a regular basis could ruin me."

Horatio stood up and walked towards the gentleman, "this conversation is completely confidential. You're name won't come up. How can I get in contact with this Mary Kelly?"

"At about this time she'll be hanging around on the corner of Whitechapel."

"Thank you sir," Horatio led the gentleman to the door and showed him the way out.

"Eric, I need you to pick up Mary Kelly please."

Eric looked shocked, "why me? People will think I'm trying to pick her up for other reasons."

"Well I'm a married man, I can't be picking up prostitutes," Horatio chuckled, he knew that he could tease Eric with this but decided against it.

"Oh and I can, thanks H," Eric didn't like this idea one bit.

Just at that moment, there was a knock at the door. Horatio answered it to Superintendent Frank Tripp.

"Frank, how are you?"

Frank entered the room looking a bit agitated, "yeah I'm good Horatio. I just thought I'd warn you, the sheriff is getting annoyed with how this Ripper investigation is going. He's on his way down here now to come and see you. Do you have any new developments to tell him?"

"As a matter of fact Frank, I do."

Horatio was about to tell Frank about his conversation with the gentleman when he heard an all too familiar voice coming through his office door.

"Horatio Caine, I hope you have some answers for me."

Horatio looked at the door and sure enough, the sheriff had entered.

"Ah, Rick, you've come to baby-sit us have you?"

"As a matter of fact, yes. You're not getting the results quick enough so I decided to see what you're both actually doing, it looks like nothing."

"Actually Rick, Eric was on his way to follow a lead."

Eric was pleased that Horatio brought this up, "well, H, I'll be off to follow up this lead. I will see you shortly," Eric acknowledged Rick, "good-day to you sir," Eric couldn't wait to get out of that office, he'd much rather go pick up this prostitute than stay in there.

Rick turned to Horatio, "aren't going to tell me all about this new lead?"

"No, I will in good time and you will be the first to know," Horatio stood staring at Rick as Frank stood between them with his arms folded.

"Also, I hope you're still not thinking that these murders were committed by an educated man? I'm being hounded by most of the gentry in the area complaining that they're getting nasty looks from people because you are accusing an educated man. I want you to look a bit further afield."

"So you want me to ruin my investigation just to make your life easier?"

"No, I just want you catch this killer before he kills again. Just ease up on the accusations of the educated members of the population, these are high status people, they're hardly going to go out in the night just to kill a prostitute."

"Rick, anything is possible."

He gave Horatio a stern glare then turned his attention to Frank, "I want you to keep an eye on him, make sure he has listened to me. His stubbornness can make him deaf sometimes."

"Sure, will keep you in the loop," Frank uncrossed his arms as Rick left the office.

"Frank, why do you put up with that?"

"I don't. I just make him think I'm doing as he says, as soon as he leaves his post, I'm going for it, a monkey on opium can do a better job than him."

Horatio smiled and tilted his head slightly, "so what do you think about this investigation? Do you think I'm doing a bad job?"

"Actually Horatio, I think you could be right in thinking it's an educated man. Judging from eye witness accounts of who they think is the ripper, it fits perfectly. A man wearing a top hat, big heavy cloak, carrying a leather bag and has been seen a couple of times driving away in a chauffeured horse and carriage, this doesn't sound like working class to me."

"No it doesn't Frank, we will find out a bit more when Eric returns."

Eric entered Horatio's office with a young girl in tow.

"Mary Kelly I presume?" Horatio stood up from his seat.

Mary nodded gingerly, "am I in trouble?"

Horatio gestured towards his chair for Mary to sit down. Eric stayed near the door whilst Frank sat in the other chair.

"Mary, everyone thinks that you are dead because the Ripper struck and mutilated a young girl in your room. Who is she? We need to know."

"I… I… I don't know. She wasn't from around here, not even a word of English, she don't know any English. I felt sorry for her so I let her stay at mine for the night."

"Where did she come from?"

"I don't know owt about her. She just stayed with me all of the time. She was cramping me with my work and so I told her to stay at mine for the night. She seemed to understand me but never spoke to me."

Horatio didn't quite know what to make of her, she seemed terrified but at the same time outspoken. Suddenly, Horatio had an idea on how to catch the Ripper. He needed to help from Eric, Frank and Mary.

It was dark and eerie, and the streets of London were quiet and still except for a figure stood on the corner. It was Mary stood waiting after agreeing to be bait in return for a new life in another part of the country. Frank was waiting down the next street in the shadows as planned. Horatio and Eric were laid in a shop doorway covered in a blanket as though they were homeless sleeping rough. Half an hour had passed when a black horse-drawn coach pulled up next to Mary. The coachman, who was dressed all in black with a bowler hat to shade his face, stepped down and opened the coach door. The voice from inside the coach gave Mary the creeps, "are you free for the night?"

"Yes sir, I am."

The man stepped out of the coach, he was dressed as Horatio had described to Mary.

"Let's go somewhere more private," the man gestured towards the dark alley.

Nervously, Mary nodded knowing that she was being watched. By this time, Horatio and Eric had got to their feet, waiting for Frank to do his part.

As Mary and the man went down the alley, Frank leapt out of the shadows and grabbed the coachman, covering the coachman's mouth and dragging him back as Horatio and Eric entered the alley.

The coachman took out a small knife to attack Frank with and cut his hand. Frank let go of the coachman with his now bleeding hand and knocked off the coachman's hat. Frank could see in the light of the moon that it was PC Jake Berkeley. Frank wrestled the knife from Berkeley as he turned round his back to Frank, he shouted at the top of his voice, "SIR, IT'S A SET UP."

Frank grabbed him but accidentally stabbed him in the back. Berkeley fell to the ground.

The strange man, by this point was just about to grab Mary, turned to be met by Horatio and Eric. The man ran past the pair of them knocking them both to the ground. As they got up, Horatio turned to Eric, "get Mary out of here."

Horatio then gave chase to the man who had just got to the end of the alley, when he started to run. When Horatio got to the end of the alley, the coach was just about to leave with the man driving. Horatio leapt on the back of the coach as it was taking off.

The coach sped off at such a high speed that the man's top hat flew off; Horatio saw it fall to the ground. Horatio knew that he had to do something so he climbed on top of the coach and managed to crawl to where the driver was. He grabbed the driver by hair and pulled it back, Horatio wasn't expecting to see Rick.

"You?"

Rick smiled and tried to lose Horatio off the top of the coach by swerving from side to side. Horatio clung on to the top of the coach. The coach drove towards the river and towards London Bridge. The shops were all closed on the bridge but the coach went across the bridge, swerving and causing a lot of damage to the shop fronts. Suddenly the coach broke free from the horse. The horse carried on into the distance leaving the coach going out of control. Horatio managed to jump from the top of the coach, ripping his clothes and causing some grazes and cuts. Rick was still on the coach when it went over the edge on the bridge. Horatio stumbled to his feet and went over to where the coach had gone over. Rick was holding on to a broken wooden piece of the bridge. Horatio leant over to try help Rick back over but the piece of wood started to crack.

Rick looked at Horatio, "see you in hell."

The wood broke and Rick fell into the water. Horatio couldn't see if he'd survived as it was too dark to make anything out. Surely he can't have survived.

A month later, Horatio was back to his normal self. Since that night on the bridge, Horatio spent quite a bit of time on the bridge searching for answers but got none. He stood looking at the spot where the coach had gone into the river, whilst fiddling with the brim of his bowler hat.

"Horatio," he turned round to see who had called him to find Eric and Frank heading towards him.

"Gentlemen, what are you doing here?"

"Looking for you," Eric looked at the River Thames from the spot where Horatio was stood, "he's gone, he's not coming back."

Horatio lowered his head and smiled, "I know Eric. I'm still haunted by the look on his face before he went into the water and what he said to me."

Frank put his on Horatio's shoulder, "it will do Horatio, but we've got to get on with protecting the city. There have been no more murders with his signature on them. I think we can safely say he's not coming back."

Horatio nodded slightly, "well, Frank, you got the Sheriff job as you wanted. I take it that monkey on opium didn't make the grade then?"

Frank laughed but Eric didn't find it very funny, "what are you two talking about?"

Horatio put on his hat and looked at Eric, "don't worry about it Eric, private joke."

With that, the three men walked back into London to start another day, doing what they do best, fighting crime.

**The End**

8


End file.
